Corals show 'vaccine-like' responses after pathogen exposure
To boost corals' resilience amid rising sea temperatures and the spread of disease, KAUST researchers have found that controlled, low-level exposure to dead pathogenic cells can help corals resist future infection.
Researchers at KAUST have discovered that corals can exhibit immune-like responses when exposed to dead pathogenic cells, potentially boosting their resilience to future infections. While corals lack an adaptive immune system like humans, their microbiomes and gene expression patterns can be conditioned by previous encounters with pathogens.
By exposing healthy samples of the common Red Sea coral Pocillopora favosa to either live or inactivated cells from the pathogenic bacterium Vibrio coralliilyticus, the team found that primed corals displayed a more regulated response when subsequently exposed to heat stress and infection. This priming effect persisted regardless of whether the corals were exposed to live or chemically inactivated bacterial cells, indicating that both the coral host and its microbiome were altered by the earlier exposure.
The team's findings suggest that corals possess a form of immune priming, which could lead to the development of microbial therapies for coral conservation and reef restoration. This research is particularly relevant for Saudi Arabia and the broader Middle East and North Africa region, where coral reefs play a crucial role in supporting biodiversity, fisheries, tourism, and coastal protection.
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